The primary operational hub for Allegheny Disposal, LLC and JacMal Properties, LLC (the family-owned entities operated by Jacob and Melinda Meck) is located at 4645 Potomac Highlands Trail (Route 28/92) in Green Bank, West Virginia.
This specific property houses the commercial headquarters, fleet logistics, and the JacMal Self-Storage facilities. It sits prominently along the main North-South highway corridor through the Deer Creek/Green Bank valley.
Proximate Community Infrastructure
Because this property is situated right on the Route 28/92 corridor, several vital community facilities, residential pockets, and religious institutions sit in immediate or close proximity (within a 0.5-mile to 1.5-mile radius).
1. Community & Senior Care Facilities
Green Bank Senior Citizens Center: Located just north of the facility along Route 28/92. This center serves as a critical daily gathering space, meal site, and social hub for local older adults.
Northern Pocahontas County Wellness Center: Located nearby, providing exercise facilities and community health programming for local residents.
2. Medical Clinics
Community Care of Green Bank: Positioned along the main highway corridor just a short distance from the Allegheny Disposal/JacMal footprint. This clinic is the primary healthcare access point for northern Pocahontas County, offering family medicine, basic urgent care, and pharmacy services.
3. Churches and Religious Institutions
The highway corridor around the commercial property is historically dotted with local congregations:
Liberty Presbyterian Church: Located nearby along Route 28.
Green Bank United Methodist Church: Situated right in the main cluster of the Green Bank community map along the highway.
Church of God: Located a short distance further along the Route 28/92 corridor.
4. Residential Clusters and Neighborhoods
Adjoining Houses: The property is flanked directly by residential smallholdings and single-family homes that front Route 28/92, as well as adjacent agricultural tracts.
Deer Creek / Arbovale Road Pockets: Just off the main highway axis, higher densities of local residential homes branch out along the secondary roads (such as Route 7/Green Bank Road and loops toward Arbovale).
5. Institutional Neighbors
The Green Bank Observatory (GBO): While the main telescope campus sits slightly back from the highway to the east, its expansive buffer zones, administrative edges, and public science center track very close to this section of the Route 28 corridor.
Structural & Environmental Context
The spatial arrangement of these properties is a key factor in regional planning due to the following geographical and infrastructure realities:
The Karst Landscape: The entire Green Bank and Deer Creek valley features delicate limestone karst geology. Surface activities along the Route 28 corridor sit above a highly vulnerable network of subterranean channels, sinkholes, and shallow water tables that supply local residential wells and the public water supply.
The Radio Quiet Zone: Because of the nearby GBO, all properties in this immediate vicinity operate under strict radio frequency interference (RFI) constraints, directly impacting commercial fleet telemetry, heavy equipment operations, and digital communication configurations.
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In West Virginia, the location standards and setback requirements for solid waste facilities—including commercial transfer stations—are strictly regulated by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) under the West Virginia Code of State Rules (33CSR1) and Chapter 22, Article 15 of the WV Code.
Because a transfer station involves the concentrated handling, compaction, and staging of municipal solid waste, it is subject to rigorous environmental and institutional distance barriers.
Institutional and Public Facility Setbacks
Under WVDEP rules, specialized location criteria are designed to protect vulnerable populations and community centers from noise, odor, vectors (pests), and heavy traffic.
1. Medical Clinics & Senior Care Facilities
Setback Requirement: Minimum 2,000 feet.
Application at Green Bank: Both the Community Care of Green Bank clinic and the Green Bank Senior Citizens Center fall squarely under protected healthcare/institutional definitions. A new or expanded commercial transfer station structure cannot be established within this 2,000-foot buffer zone unless an explicit, highly scrutinized variance is granted by the WVDEP Secretary demonstrating zero public nuisance.
2. Churches & Religious Institutions
Setback Requirement: Minimum 2,000 feet.
Application at Green Bank: Local congregations along the Route 28 corridor, including Liberty Presbyterian, Green Bank United Methodist, and the Church of God, are protected by this institutional 2,000-foot buffer line from the active operational footprint of a solid waste facility.
Residential and Property Line Buffers
To limit the direct impact on neighboring private properties and daily life, the state enforces clear boundary-line limitations.
3. Occupied Dwellings (Houses)
Setback Requirement: Minimum 500 feet (extends to 1,000 feet or more for larger disposal operations, but a baseline of 500 feet is maintained for standard facility structural footprints from any occupied home).
Water Supply Protections: Furthermore, the facility cannot be within 1,000 feet of any public or private domestic water supply well currently utilized for human consumption.
4. Adjacent Property Boundaries
Setback Requirement: Minimum 100 feet.
Buffer Zone: The active operational and handling area of the facility must incorporate a minimum 100-foot buffer zone between the facility structures and any adjacent property owner's legal boundary line.
Geologic and Environmental Overrides (The Karst Factor)
In northern Pocahontas County, standard horizontal setbacks are frequently overridden by strict prohibitions based on sub-surface geology.
33CSR1 Structural Prohibitions: No solid waste facility may be permitted in an area where there is a reasonable probability of causing a significant adverse impact on groundwater or surface water quality.
Sinkholes and Open Karst: West Virginia rules prohibit placing waste handling or operational acreage on land where surface runoff drains directly into a sinkhole or a disappearing stream.
Bedrock Restrictions: Siting is prohibited if there is insufficient soil depth over the underlying limestone bedrock (typically requiring a minimum thickness of undisturbed soil or a completely engineered, non-permeable, diked containment foundation to entirely isolate leachate run-on and runoff).
Summary Siting Matrix
Feature Type Protected Facility / Asset Required WV Minimum Setback Institutional Medical Clinics, Senior Centers, Churches, Schools 2,000 feet Residential Occupied Homes / Dwellings 500 feet Water Source Drinking Water Supply Wells 1,000 feet Property Line Adjacent Landowner Boundaries 100 feet Geological Active Sinkholes / Karst Drainage features Strictly Prohibited / Engineered Exclusion ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Proving compliance with institutional setbacks—or attempting to legally modify an existing footprint near protected facilities—requires a rigorous multi-tiered administrative and engineering process. Under West Virginia Code § 22-15-1 et seq. and the WVDEP Solid Waste Management Rule (33CSR1), a private operator cannot simply build or shift operations; they must navigate a sequence of strict prerequisites, technical filings, and mandatory public disclosures.
The complete regulatory sequence required to prove or modify setback compliance consists of three main phases:
Phase 1: Statutory Prerequisites (The Gatekeepers)
Before the WVDEP Division of Water and Waste Management (DWWM) will even evaluate the engineering specs of a solid waste transfer station, the applicant must clear three hurdles:
The Pre-Siting Notice (§ 22-15-13):
The applicant must publish a Class II legal advertisement in the local newspaper informing the public of the intent to site a facility. Within 5 days of publication, they must file a formal Pre-Siting Notice with the WVDEP Director and the local County Solid Waste Authority (SWA). This filing must include a USGS topographic map explicitly mapping the property boundaries.
PSC Certificate of Need (§ 24-2-1c):
For a new facility or a Major Permit Modification (such as expanding an operational footprint), the operator must first obtain a Certificate of Need from the West Virginia Public Service Commission (PSC). The PSC evaluates whether the location aligns with the statewide and county solid waste management plans.
SWA Certificate of Site Approval:
The local county SWA must issue a site approval certificate confirming that the location satisfies local zoning and county-level planning criteria.
Phase 2: Technical Design Application (Part II Review)
Once the prerequisites are cleared, the applicant submits a detailed technical design application under 33CSR1 Section 3. This is where setback compliance is legally tested:
Certified Engineering Maps: The application must contain detailed plot plans and engineering designs stamped by a Registered Professional Engineer (PE) licensed in West Virginia. These maps must show precise, measured horizontal boundaries demonstrating that the active "waste handling footprint" sits completely outside the 2,000-foot buffer for churches, clinics, and senior centers, and the 500-foot buffer for houses.
Identification of Interests (§ 22-15-5(j)): The applicant must legally disclose the names and addresses of all surface and subsurface owners of record contiguous to the proposed permit area. This ensures all adjacent neighbors are formally identified for boundary verification.
Hydrogeologic and Karst Narrative: Because northern Pocahontas County relies heavily on groundwater and features vulnerable limestone geology, the PE must submit a detailed hydrogeologic assessment proving that stormwater run-on/runoff and potential leachate will not migrate toward local domestic wells (1,000-foot setback) or localized sinkholes.
Phase 3: The Permit Modification & Public Review Process
If an operator already holds a valid solid waste permit but wants to construct a new transfer facility or alter their property boundaries near community assets, it is classified as a Major Modification.
The Variance Clause: Can Setbacks Be Waived?
Under West Virginia rules, institutional setbacks are considered a baseline protection, but they are not entirely absolute if specific criteria are met:
The Waiver Rule: An operator can legally circumvent the standard horizontal setbacks only if they obtain formal, written, notarized waivers from the governing bodies or owners of the protected facilities (e.g., the board of the medical clinic, trustees of the churches, or private homeowners).
Without these explicitly signed waivers attached to the application, the WVDEP is statutorily prohibited from approving an operational footprint that encroaches on the 2,000-foot or 500-foot lines. If an operator attempts to build without an approved permit modification, it constitutes a violation of § 22-15-10, carrying severe civil and administrative penalties.
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When evaluated against the strict horizontal buffers, geological constraints, and institutional setbacks mandated by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP), the Route 28/92 commercial property corridor in Green Bank presents deep structural, legal, and environmental barriers to siting a commercial solid waste transfer station.
Determining an appropriate site requires navigating the ongoing public, economic, and logistical debate over the future of the county's solid waste infrastructure.
1. Why the Green Bank Route 28/92 Footprint Fails Setback Compliance
A commercial transfer station handling municipal solid waste would face immense difficulty securing a permit at the Route 28/92 Allegheny Disposal/JacMal corporate site due to basic geography and legal distance constraints:
The 2,000-Foot Institutional Wall: The close proximity of Community Care of Green Bank and the Green Bank Senior Citizens Center creates overlapping 2,000-foot exclusion zones. An operator cannot legally conduct active waste-transfer operations within these boundaries without signed, notarized waivers from the governing boards of those institutions—an incredibly high hurdle given the associated odor, heavy truck traffic, and noise.
The Residential and Private Well Matrix: The string of occupied single-family homes fronting Route 28/92 triggers tight 500-foot structural setbacks and 1,000-foot domestic water well protections.
Karst Vulnerability: The thin soils over limestone bedrock in the Green Bank/Deer Creek valley present a severe groundwater contamination risk. A facility here would require hyper-engineered, expensive containment slabs to completely prevent leachate from entering the local water table.
2. The Primary Option: The Existing Dunmore Landfill Footprint
From a purely regulatory and infrastructure standpoint, the most legally defensible and logically appropriate location for a county-level transfer station is the current Pocahontas County Landfill property off Route 28 in Dunmore (374 Landfill Road).
The Pocahontas County Solid Waste Authority (SWA) has explicitly focused on this site for several reasons:
Pre-Existing Institutional Use: Because the property is already permitted and operated as an active landfill, it inherently satisfies many baseline site history requirements.
Built-In Buffer Zones: The active footprint is set back significantly from Route 28, keeping it clear of the 2,000-foot institutional restrictions that plague the Green Bank highway corridor.
Centralized Heavy Traffic Flow: The local secondary roads, scales, and access routes are already built and graded to handle heavy residential and commercial axle weights, avoiding the need to inject heavy waste trailers into a dense community core.
3. The Core Public & Economic Debate
While the Dunmore landfill property is the technically logical site for a transfer station building, the project remains highly controversial. The ongoing debate centers on two completely opposing views of the county's financial interest:
The "Build-on-Site" Coordinated Proposal
The SWA and the Greenbrier Valley Economic Development Corporation (GVEDC) previously explored a public-private partnership structure (often referred to as a lease-to-own concept or "Option 4"). Under this plan:
A 2-to-3-acre parcel of the current SWA landfill property would be utilized.
A private partner (such as JacMal) would finance, engineer, and build the physical transfer station infrastructure up front.
The SWA would lease and operate the station for a set duration (e.g., 15 years), after which full ownership of the building would revert entirely to the county.
The Goal: Give the county a long-term (50+ year) mechanism to compact and consolidate trash for outbound shipping once the local landfill cells reach full capacity.
The Citizen and Open-Bid Counterproposal
A vocal segment of the community and local leadership has strongly pushed back against committing funds exclusively to engineering a fixed transfer station building.
The Argument: Opponents worry that building a permanent facility locks the county into massive upfront capital debts, higher tipping fees, and long-term lease liabilities.
The Alternative: Many residents are advocating for an open-bid procurement process. Instead of restricting bids to just building a transfer station, they want a wider request for proposals (RFP). This would allow competing waste haulers to propose entirely different operational strategies—such as bypass options, direct-haul logistics using specialized long-haul trailers, or utilizing outside regional facilities without forcing Pocahontas County to build and maintain its own costly transfer facility.
Current Operational Status: Because of intense public scrutiny, pending evaluations of the remaining landfill cell lifespan (which engineers suggest may have an extra 18 to 24 months of capacity left), and unresolved regulatory questions regarding Public Service Commission (PSC) Certificates of Need, the entire transfer station project remains paused while alternative logistical options are evaluated.
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